A&H

Going for promotion- anytips

As you go up the levels the experience of the observer's also increases. I got more productive feedback at 6-5 than I did at 7-6, and have had more again at 5-4.

Best feedback I got was this past weekend as my CORE coach came to watch who is a Contrib League observer, his feedback was again at a different level to that which I’d had before.
That's exactly what @Russell Jones advised. It stands to reason that observers competencies are aligned with that expected of players

The comment yesterday that irked me, was that I'd signalled a few times for GKs with the whistle. That was categorically untrue and I could only assume that Mr Observer didn't notice something else like a substitution, injury, sanction or any other prolonged delay which warranted a whistle. Or he didn't know the difference himself. As you can imagine by my cantankerous persona on the forum, I didn't let this oversight slip past smoothly! :punch:
@Russell Jones also advised to smile and suck it up when that happens, but I'm not the best at listening!
 
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The Referee Store
The biggest tip I can give is to read the competencies and make sure that you fully understand what it is that the observers are going to be looking for.

And, don't drop marks for stupid things. We can only referee what is Infront of us, but things like pitch inspections and kit checks are easy, and you dont want to drop marks because you couldn't be bothered to spend 10 minutes checking the pitch, or you end up with players running around with earrings in etc.
 
I had my 4th assessment yesterday. It should be a pass, as were the first three
Honestly, I don't think I've learned anything from the whole experience. The positional advice has been very contradictory. It's left me running around like a lunatic (5.9 miles yesterday) trying to tick everyone's boxes. Some of the observations have been factually incorrect, like when (and when not) to use the whistle for restarts and if and when the correct signalling was used. These are things that I'm 100% on, primarily because of my forum membership. I've also found that every observer has dwelt on the negatives, with only one observer giving any positive feedback. All four games have gone as well as I could possibly have hoped for (no KMI mistakes, good foul recognition, communication and AOL), yet I've left every game feeling down in the mouth despite receiving the inevitable pass mark a few days later. Several summary comments have stated that I need a sterner test, but it's not my fault that my games are mostly uneventful for whatever reason
Going for promotion at 7 to 6 and partially 6 to 5 can be like that, as it all depends on game choice. When I got promoted 7 to 6 nearly 16 years ago I learnt more from an assessment on a game I 'failed' than I did on any of my passes as both 7 to 6 and 6 to 5. Promotion at these levels can be very much down to game choice. That being said there's a lot more input nowadays into getting the right game for the candidate to be observed on.
 
Going for promotion at 7 to 6 and partially 6 to 5 can be like that, as it all depends on game choice. When I got promoted 7 to 6 nearly 16 years ago I learnt more from an assessment on a game I 'failed' than I did on any of my passes as both 7 to 6 and 6 to 5. Promotion at these levels can be very much down to game choice. That being said there's a lot more input nowadays into getting the right game for the candidate to be observed on.
Sunday League games should be actively avoided; except that we may need to do some to get our game count up
On the occasion I was observed on SL, I pretty much said to the observer, 'both teams are a complete mess, I'm gonna crack on'
 
Sunday League games should be actively avoided; except that we may need to do some to get our game count up
On the occasion I was observed on SL, I pretty much said to the observer, 'both teams are a complete mess, I'm gonna crack on'
I got my 7-6 solely with Sunday league games, absolutely no problem what so ever.
 
Sunday League games should be actively avoided; except that we may need to do some to get our game count up
On the occasion I was observed on SL, I pretty much said to the observer, 'both teams are a complete mess, I'm gonna crack on'

7-6 is about being able to identify fouls of different severity and apply the right sanction, being able to differentiate between penal and technical offences, being able to demonstrate a reasonable level of match control and have decent level of fitness to get into positions to make decisions.

It's really designed to catch out those that are not able to put into practice the basics that they were taught in the refs course - for many referees their first 7-6 observation will be the first time that they've had someone come down and watch them specifically since they qualified as a referee.

6-5 gets a bit more demanding as there are more competencies and more is expected, plus you will in get a better standard of game played at a higher tempo (in general).
 
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